


New Wallingford Striker a Bear for Football

by Northland



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Additional Treat, Epistolary, Gen, Journalism, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 23:51:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18200675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northland/pseuds/Northland
Summary: "Pietr Moll is used to being underestimated. The young striker and his massive bear daemon aren’t your typical football pairing, after all."An excerpt of an article from the Sport pages of theWallingford Gazetteer.





	New Wallingford Striker a Bear for Football

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HopefulNebula](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefulNebula/gifts).



> I loved your prompts about living with daemons in cities, and what kind of daemons would be considered best for athletes; I hope you enjoy this treat!

Pietr Moll is used to being underestimated. The young striker and his massive bear daemon aren’t your typical football pairing, after all. As his teammates and opponents dart across the pitch, their daemons flying and buzzing overhead or (in a few cases) clinging to the shoulders of their kit, Uralia lumbers down the sidelines, barely avoiding the linesmen if they’re too slow to get out of her way.

But he isn’t waiting for her to keep up. A streak of bright blue across the green, a blur as he shoots, and the crowd shouts itself hoarse as Moll scores for Wallingford. Uralia’s own roar of triumph as she rises to her hind legs is nearly drowned out.

We may be loathe to admit it these days, but we still expect athletes to have daemons appropriate to their chosen pursuit. As children’s daemons settle, those with birds are encouraged to take up fast-moving sports like football, ice hockey, or crew. Those with heavier ones are steered toward rugger, while small and limber daemons are pushed into gymnastics and swimming. This holds true even when the child may not be interested in or have any particular talent for such a sport. 

Moll was having none of it. He loved football when Uralia was changing from horsefly to cat to turtle, and he still loved it when she settled as a massive brown bear, her head when she was on all fours level with his shoulder. His school team wouldn’t let him join, claiming it was too dangerous, so he played pickup games and club football until his talent couldn't be denied. When the Wallingford Wall took a chance and signed him last year, plenty of commentators tutted and shook their heads. But in their second season in the league, Moll and Uralia are on their way to proving them all wrong.

“Other kids used to call me a witch, but I'm not.” He shrugs. “We just practiced, because I didn’t want to stop playing football, and I knew Uralia couldn’t be on the pitch with me. So we spent months learning to get farther and farther away from each other. At first I was dizzy almost all the time, but it got better.”

Moll's skill is apparent, and his drive to succeed is palpable. So why did no-one want to let him play?

Theologists say that as ingrained as these stereotypes are, they’re simply not true. One can make judgements about someone based on the personality of their daemon, certainly, but not on its species. Yet we persist in attributing some significance to it all, that a person with a sparrow daemon will obviously be a better footballer than someone with a snake.

Of course, sport isn’t the only way in which Moll and Uralia are unusual. Her size alone makes her an object of interest in the modern world.

Like so much else regarding daemons, there's little hard evidence on how they changed as their people developed into city dwellers. It seems like common sense that prehistoric daemons would have been larger, and even today ones in tribal societies tend to be, but such inclinations aren’t conclusive. Cave paintings which some claim must illustrate truly impressive daemons—horses, oxen, even the occasional elephant—other archaeologists interpret as merely depicting hunting scenes. 

On one thing all agree, however: these days, such daemons are incredibly rare in Brytain. On the streets of London one almost never encounters a daemon larger than a mastiff or a pig. Moll and Uralia stand out in town, and they also have to adapt to some difficulties most of us have never encountered.

They can’t take an ordinary tramcar or ride in most cabs, for one thing, so Moll lives in a rowhouse within walking distance of the field. It was necessary to find one with a basement, as well, so that Uralia could have the underground den she prefers.

Does she hibernate, I wonder? 

"No." Moll looks affronted. “She’s not a _real_ bear. She doesn’t fish for salmon either.” 

“I could if I wanted to.” Uralia rarely speaks to strangers, but that only makes her deep burring growl more impressive when she does. 

"Of course you could," Moll agrees, and scratches the thick dusty fur of her neck ruff.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a sports fan, but know football/soccer only by osmosis - if I made any terrible blunders, please let me know!


End file.
